By the Rev. Newton Ogle, Dean of Manchester
Oh thou, that prattling on thy pebbled wayThrough my paternal vale dost stray,Working thy shallow passage to the sea!Oh, stream, thou speedest onThe same as many seasons gone;But not, alas, to meRemain the feelings that beguiledMy early road, when, careless and content,(Losing the hours in pastimes innocent)Upon thy banks I strayed a playful child;Whether the pebbles that thy margin strew,Collecting, heedlessly I threw;Or loved in thy translucent waveMy tender shrinking feet to lave;Or else ensnared your little fry,And thought how wondrous skilled was I!So passed my boyish days, unknown to pain,Days that will ne'er return again.It seems but yesterdayI was a child, to-morrow to be gray!So years succeeding years steal silently away.Not fleeter thy own current, hurrying thee,Rolls down to the great sea.Thither oh carry these sad thoughts; the deepBury them!--thou, meantime, thy tenor keep,And winding through the green-wood, cheer,As erst, my native, peaceful pastures here.
Words in this poem
- pebbled a.
- Abounding in pebbles. Thomson.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- lave v. t.
- To lade, dip, or pour out. [OE. laven. See Lavish.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- boyish a.
- Resembling a boy in a manners or opinions; belonging to a boy; childish; trifling; puerile.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By the Rev. Newton Ogle, Dean of Manchester is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan, Project Gutenberg ebook #18915; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Lisle Bowles, By the Rev. Newton Ogle, Dean of Manchester, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/by-the-rev-newton-ogle-dean-of-manchester.html, id L09942.
Form and metre
By the Rev. Newton Ogle, Dean of Manchester is 27 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 26% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABCCBD--DEEFFGGHHAAABBIIJJ wayA · strayA · seaB · onC · goneC · meB · beguiledD · content · innocent · childD · strewE · threwE · waveF · laveF · fryG · iG · painH · againH · yesterdayA · grayA · awayA · theeB · seaB · deepI · keepI · cheerJ · hereJ
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh thou, that prattling on thy pebbled way | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Through my paternal vale dost stray, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Working thy shallow passage to the sea! | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Oh, stream, thou speedest on | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The same as many seasons gone; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But not, alas, to me | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Remain the feelings that beguiled | 9 | ˘/·/˘·˘/˘ |
| My early road, when, careless and content, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| (Losing the hours in pastimes innocent) | 11 | /˘·/˘·/·/˘˘ |
| Upon thy banks I strayed a playful child; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whether the pebbles that thy margin strew, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Collecting, heedlessly I threw; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Or loved in thy translucent wave | 9 | ··˘··˘/˘· |
| My tender shrinking feet to lave; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Or else ensnared your little fry, | 9 | ··˘/˘·/˘· |
| And thought how wondrous skilled was I! | 9 | ···/˘·˘·· |
| So passed my boyish days, unknown to pain, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Days that will ne'er return again. | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| It seems but yesterday | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I was a child, to-morrow to be gray! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So years succeeding years steal silently away. | 11 | ··˘/˘··/˘˘/ |
| Not fleeter thy own current, hurrying thee, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Rolls down to the great sea. | 6 | ······ |
| Thither oh carry these sad thoughts; the deep | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Bury them!--thou, meantime, thy tenor keep, | 10 | /˘··/··/˘· |
| And winding through the green-wood, cheer, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As erst, my native, peaceful pastures here. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.